i'm still trying to learn how to watch the game. i want to understand a midfielder's most common passing locations. i want to see passing lanes before they develop. this was jones' first game with us. does the visual representation match what i saw on tv? what doesn't the chart tell me (in this case, about his physicality) ? if i look at enough of these what patterns will i see? i have so much trouble comparing two players against two different teams, could this help?

where, how, and who did he link up with? (have to reach to remember the who) what was his average pass length?

i'm american, i love stats and charts, this chart may not tell me much but can we be so sure that the tenth or hundreth chart won't reveal something? we never know where tactical breakthroughs are going to come, who will see the game differently. i will stick to national type and hope it's us lol

I'm not knocking the concept either btw - if there's going to be some revolutionary development in the game (there only appears to ever have been two so far as I can tell) then I'm pretty persuaded that it'll come from some kind of synthesis of this and set-plays. I'm sure not going to be able to spot it though.

(i) the Scottish passing game taking over from kick-and-rush around the 1880s; and(ii) the whole pressing/offside trap/possession system of Ajax in the 1960s.

We're basically still exploring the world invented by (ii). There's a terrific book (Inverting the Pyramid by Jonathan Wilson) looking at the development of tactics through the ages, not sure if it'll've reached your shores Jibe. There are lots of interesting innovations discussed in it, but those two seem to be the big ones. The others usually mostly happen every few years when one guy stands in a slightly different position, and everyone else gets confused

i love edu's composure on the ball. he doesn't make me start drumming my fingers nervously in possession.it seems like holden out wide takes away a lot of what's best about him: getting involved, cutting into passing lanes. you'd think the idea would be he'd send in crosses from out wide, but i don't think he's had a cross yet.

EJ for jozy? lichaj for spector (hey, he was only burned twice! not bad). any other changes?

yeah i guess it was a 4-3-3, in the first half. jozy was so marooned and alone i'm tempted to call it 4-3-2-1. but i'm bad with formations. brek shea looked okay, not totally outclassed at this level with his first cap, so that's something. EJ came in at HT and edu went out (i think, i missed some) so the formation changed but i'm not sure how. the second half was better, dempsey with some spark, but yeah, you didn't miss much.

The next elections are in February, the position is unpaid, and he allegedly makes a shitton of money off his travel business (which, surprise, does most of USSF's bookings) and his position with the Revs.

The one good thing I've noticed is more and more of the top journalists covering the federation (Wahl, Goff, the Howler guys, etc) getting much more critical with their coverage of his roles.

Setting aside the fifth-most lucrative sport in the country stuff, would Americans find the European academy system of development palatable? Taking 8-year olds out of school for academy schooling and booting them if they don't improve enough, etc..

In youth baseball there's a movement to make it less of a year round sport - are soccer parents going to be okay with turning it INTO a 10-month sport?

AFAIK there are already Euro style academies here, the problem is they've only existed for a few years and they're competing with pay-to-play clubs and coaches who have been around a lot longer, and hence pull more weight. The goal for a lot of people is getting a college scholarship, not becoming a pro.

I agree about the academies but I'm also not invested in the USMNT being particularly competitive - I'm happy enough supporting some other country I have a vague rooting interest in when the World Cup rolls around.

The U.S. Soccer Foundation, an independent charitable organization that has invested $125 million over the last 25 years to provide access to soccer, largely in minority and low-income communities, sued the U.S. Soccer Federation on Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Ed Foster-Simeon, the president and CEO of the U.S. Soccer Foundation, told SI.com he was stunned in August when U.S. Soccer requested a meeting in which it said it was ending the relationship between the two organizations—the federation president has always sat on the foundation’s board—and demanded that the foundation abandon the name “U.S. Soccer Foundation” and its logos.